David Capps
David Capps’ creative journey began unexpectedly, sparked by a childhood moment of reflection. “As a young child, my parents were moving from our first house, and on our last night there, I felt this urge to write all about my family history,” Capps recalls. Scrawling facts on the wall by his bunk bed, this early instinct to document his identity laid the groundwork for his later pursuits in writing. “I think there was something basic about it—the need to say ‘I was here,’” he says.
Though he now holds an MFA in poetry and a PhD in philosophy, Capps’ path was far from linear. His academic work, particularly his philosophical training, initially hindered his creative voice. “The PhD hurt my creative writing at first. I was so used to writing in a highly formal tone, full of qualifications, that I lost sight of the audience,” he admits. However, philosophy eventually allowed him to see the big-picture ideas in his work more clearly and articulate philosophical concepts in his writing.
Capps is an experimentalist at heart, constantly exploring different genres and forms. “I experiment with almost anything outside of playwriting,” he says. For Capps, each genre offers a distinct way to stretch the boundaries of imagination. “Different genres and styles are keyed to different ways our sense of what is possible can be expanded,” he explains. This sense of free play drives much of his work, often transforming narrative poems into creative non-fiction or philosophical essays into aphorisms. His writing grapples with weighty themes: Daoism, deep ecology, spirituality, and the intricate relationship between humanity and the natural world. “Some themes I struggle with—like our relationship to the distant past and how we derive a sense of narrative continuity in life,” he notes. Influences such as Dante, Rilke, and Wittgenstein have also shaped his approach, especially in blending philosophical and literary traditions. “From Dante, I learned how to build an extended metaphor; from Dillard and Carson, I saw how flexible genre can be.”
Capps’ creative process is anything but routine. “I’m quite lazy, actually,” he laughs, describing a typical day that starts with recording dreams, playing chess, and wandering outdoors. “It’s on atypical days that I get the most done,” he adds, referencing the spontaneous flow of creativity that fuels his writing. When faced with creative blocks, he shifts focus to other projects, often juggling multiple ideas at once. “I generally have so many projects going that there’s always something I can be doing, even if it’s just reorganizing material or brainstorming book ideas.” One of his more rewarding projects, On Rip Van Winkle, exemplifies his interdisciplinary approach, fusing short story and lyric essay forms. “It went through radical revisions, and I learned a lot about editorial collaboration and the willingness to reshape an idea,” he says. This openness to feedback, coupled with his intellectual curiosity, keeps Capps’ work dynamic and ever-evolving.
As for the future, Capps expresses concern over the encroachment of AI in creative spaces but remains hopeful that his work will carry a distinct human element. “I’d hope that there’s a kind of vision or architecture of ideas in my work that wouldn’t be easily replicable by AI,” he reflects. His current projects include a book of philosophical aphorisms, a poetry chapbook, and a collection of lyric essays—all of which embody his commitment to pushing creative and intellectual boundaries.
For Capps, writing is an act of expanding possibilities, both for himself and his readers. “I hope my work highlights a sense of wonder, an expanded sense of self, and what is possible,” he says, encapsulating the essence of his creative philosophy.
